The Elephant Whisperer

Lawrence hears shots on the western boundary of the reserve and leaves immediately with David, one his rangers, and Max, his dog. He is unable to contact Ndonga, the head of the Ovambo guards on the reserve, over the radio. Poachers have been targeting Thula Thula, the reserve Lawrence owns with his fiancée, Françoise, for a year now.

As they approach the western fence, Lawrence realizes they have been set up: The shots were a decoy, and they hear fresh shots on the far side of the reserve, a 45-minute drive away. By the time they arrive there, it is too late—two nyalas have been taken. Lawrence realizes this is an internal job, just as the locals have been telling him. The next morning, Ndonga apologizes for not responding to the call as he had been out drinking. He promises to make catching the poachers a priority.

Lawrence gets a call from Marion Garaï of the Elephant Managers and Owners Association, a private organization in South Africa that takes an interest in elephant welfare. She asks if he would consider adopting a herd of wild elephants. The catch is that they are considered troublesome and have broken out of other reserves in the past. If they are not taken in, however, the family of nine will be put down. Marion has heard Lawrence has a way with animals and believes his reserve might be right for this herd. Despite Lawrence’s reservations regarding the herd’s history, his poaching issue, and the need to quickly secure resources to house the elephants, Lawrence agrees.

Lawrence grew up in “old” Africa, as his parents moved to Zululand in the 1960s. The backwoods were his home and local African kids his friends. He left for the city as an adult but returned in the 1990s to wild Africa when, while looking at a map of Empangeni, he was struck by how much unutilized tribal land existed in the area. The land belongs to six different Zulu clans, and Lawrence has the idea to convince the different leaders to lease out the land to a single trust focused on conversation. He would call the trust Royal Zulu. Thula Thula, the oldest game reserve in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, is key to this project and was fortuitously up for sale at the same time, for the first time in half a century.

Lawrence learns he has to take in the elephant herd in two weeks’ time, or else they will be shot. In this time, he needs to repair and electrify the outer fencing of the reserve and build a boma, a traditional holding pen to quarantine the elephants when they first arrive. It is a difficult deadline, and he calls David and Ndonga with the news. David is enthusiastic, but Ndonga is doubtful of pulling it off. They hire laborers from local communities to get to work and hold meetings with the local chieftains to inform them of the elephants’ imminent arrival.

Work progresses well initially, but Lawrence meets his first obstacle when workers put down their tools along the western boundary, claiming they have been shot at. Lawrence first suspects a fear of witchcraft, or muthi, but when someone gets injured shortly after, Lawrence investigates and discovers the person responsible—a single huntsman from another Zulu village who is a professional poacher. His livelihood is endangered by the new electrical fence being put up for the elephants, as he will be unable to break into Thula Thula anymore. Lawrence recognizes this person cannot be behind the reserve’s larger poaching problem.

After the issue is resolved, work progresses again. However, Lawrence misses the deadline and tries to stall the elephants’ arrival multiple times until he gets a call saying the elephants have broken out again. He begs for a final extension, saying only getting the elephant-proofing permit from KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Wildlife remains.

Just as Lawrence’s men are finishing the final fence, he gets a call saying the elephants are on their way and will be there in 18 hours. He urgently calls KZN Wildlife, who promise to send an inspector in a couple of hours. When Lawrence sets out to do a final inspection himself, he discovers an elemental error: The electric wires around the boma are bracketed inside, but the fence and cables are strung up outside the poles, making it relatively easy for the elephants to break the mesh.

Luckily, the inspector doesn’t notice this error; he also notes the single large tree inside, a large tambotie, which he deems safe as it is too big for the elephants to break and topple onto the fence. A grateful Lawrence receives sad news shortly after: The matriarch of the herd and her baby were shot during capture. Lawrence is stunned but now even more determined to rehabilitate the rest of the herd.

Rain is a sign of blessing in Africa, and it is pouring when the elephants arrive. After a couple of small mishaps involving a burst tire and the truck getting stuck in the wet mud, the elephants are finally let into the boma. The new matriarch emerges with six other elephants behind her: a baby bull, three females, and a teenage bull whose mother was the previous matriarch. David names the teenage bull “Mnumzane,” meaning “sir” in Zulu; the matriarch is named “Nana,” and the second female in command is called “Frankie,” after Françoise.

Nana leads the herd inside the boma, tests the wires of the fence and backs off when she feels the current, and then leads the herd off to drink water. The elephants need to be left alone without contact with humans so that they acclimatize, so Lawrence orders everyone to leave. As he does, he notices the elephants lined up at a corner of the boma facing due north, the direction of their old home, which Lawrence thinks is an ominous sight.

Lawrence is woken up in the middle of the night with the news that the elephants have broken out of the boma. They worked as a team to fell the huge tambotie together onto the electrical fence, short-circuiting the wires. Despite the dismay Lawrence feels at this news, he also feels a sense of pride in the herd.

Lawrence sets out with a search party to discover that the elephants have destroyed the energizer that powers the 8,000-volt fence around the reserve boundary and are headed due north, ostensibly for their old home at Mpumalanga. News of the elephant escape has spread, and hunters wait with rifles outside the reserve, hoping to gun the animals down, which incenses Lawrence. He calls in a friend, Peter Bell, an expert game-capture pilot, to help find the elephants before anyone with a gun does.

With the chopper in the skies, Lawrence continues on foot but meets Ovambo game rangers who proclaim the elephants have turned back. However, Lawrence notices the lack of spoor or elephant dung in the direction the Ovambos point out, so he eventually changes direction to his original course after a while. He wonders how these supposed expert trackers could have been so wrong.

Despite Peter’s help, Lawrence is unable to locate the elephants, and the search is called off at sundown. Lawrence mulls over the day’s events, from what made the elephants smash through the fence to the Ovambos’ wrong call, when he is visited by Bheki, one of his rangers. Bheki reveals that someone shot at the elephants near the boma last night; he expresses his mistrust of the Ovambos, but Lawrence takes this with a grain of salt, as tribal animosities run deep in Zululand.

The next day, the search continues, and Lawrence finally receives word that the herd has been spotted heading toward the Umfolozi game reserve, the KZN Wildlife’s flagship sanctuary. Lawrence finds them, and Peter manages to herd the elephants back toward Thula Thula using the helicopter. However, once they approach the reserve fence, the elephants refuse to budge forward, even when shots are fired behind them. It is late in the day and too dark to continue now; Peter leaves, as do the elephants, and Lawrence realizes he has to do this all over again the next day.

Lawrence wakes up early and continues the chase on foot the next day, as Peter is unable to fly. The herd has broken into Umfolozi, splitting up into two groups in the night and meeting up in the reserve later, a feat that amazes Lawrence and has him reflecting on the incredible communication abilities that elephants possess.

At Umfolozi, the elephants approach and ransack the rangers’ quarters with their trunks after having smelled the food stored there, causing intense damage and wreaking havoc. Peter Hartley, the conservation manager on the reserve, is charged by Frankie when he approaches the herd to assess the situation and narrowly escapes with his life.

Hartley follows up on the herd’s history with its previous owners and then calls Lawrence in for a chat, asserting they would not have allowed the herd a permit if they knew of its background. Lawrence desperately pleads for a final chance for the herd, promising to take full responsibility. If they are still out of control within a couple of months, then he will be left with no option but to put the herd down.

When Lawrence returns to Thula Thula, he gets a call from a wildlife dealer offering to buy the herd for $20,000 and to even replace them with a less aggressive one. Lawrence says he will get back to the dealer but feels uncomfortable with the offer—he realizes he has already bonded with the herd.

Later, he receives good news that KZN Wildlife has agreed to stay the execution of the elephants. They will be captured and returned to Thula Thula, but if they escape again, they will be shot on sight.

The boma is repaired, and Lawrence waits for KZN Wildlife to capture the herd. He gets a call from Marion again, who suggests an animal psychic. Lawrence is skeptical but desperate enough to agree to try. The psychic arrives a couple of days later, a middle-aged Canadian woman who proceeds to sprinkle vibrations in the bush and exorcise Lawrence’s favorite fig tree.

The herd is captured and returned to Thula Thula, where they reenter the boma. Lawrence receives yet another call from the wildlife dealer the next day, who doubles his offer. Lawrence stalls again, feeling irritated. He drives to the boma before nightfall and decides that, contrary to all advice, he will live with the herd. They have had bad experiences with humans, and in order to be properly rehabilitated, they will need to trust at least one human again. Lawrence will stay outside the boma but will constantly be with them, feeding and talking to them.

Lawrence takes David and Max along, filling up the Land Rover with supplies. The first day, they watch the elephants from a distance of 30 yards, as Nana and Frankie rush up to the fence if the humans get any closer. At night, David wakes Lawrence up. It is 4:45 a.m., and Nana is approaching the fence. Lawrence realizes she is planning on breaking it down again, and he stands in front of her, pleading with her not to, or she and the herd will be killed. Lawrence recognizes how what he is doing is both absurd and dangerous; however, a few minutes later, Nana backs away, disappearing into the boma with the rest of the herd. Lawrence feels like he connected with her for a moment, and this gives him hope.

Lawrence’s days with the elephants continue. The elephants rush the fence if the humans ever get too close, and they even need to be distracted for food to be thrown into the boma. Lawrence wonders about their past experiences, as their hatred for humans appears intense.

Over time, Nana grows slightly calmer, but Frankie takes over the role of the main aggressor. Lawrence continues to be present, walking around the fence and singing and talking to the elephants, but mostly ignoring them and showing them he is comfortable around them. The early morning ritual where the elephants plan to break out also continues, and each day, Lawrence stands and pleads with Nana not to do it. David asks if they will ever win. Lawrence doesn’t know, wondering if the damage done to the elephants is too deep to repair.

The psychic arrives at the boma one day to sprinkle good vibrations and then declares it safe enough to walk among the elephants now. Lawrence laughs at this; he realizes he is not convinced by the psychic and her methods, effectively terminating her services. However, a few days later, there emerges a need for someone to enter the boma after all. The branches of a tree that Nana and Frankie felled bounce and snag the wires, so the branches need to be hacked off the fence before the elephants can sense the weak link and smash the fence entirely.

David volunteers to enter the boma. Lawrence orchestrates a plan where they will miss a feed and then throw food over the fence on the opposite side to the hungry elephants to keep them away. The rangers will switch off the current just when David climbs in and turn it back once he is inside. Lawrence would have a rifle ready just in case and one ranger with him to communicate to the others through the radio.

Once David is inside, however, Frankie catches his scent and charges. Instructions are radioed for the power to be cut and David to get out immediately; however, the message doesn’t reach the rangers handling the current. Miraculously, David manages to scan the eight-foot-high electrical fence and escape without a scratch from the 8,000 volts it packs, while Frankie is forced to break out of her charge at the fence. Once the elephants calm down, David finishes the job, with the elephants successfully distracted the second time around.